and it was a great read…Hopefully LMA’s dad can get his act together…you can definitely see why he has trust issues. Its great to see how caring our front office is with all of our guys! Paul Allen, KP and company have done a great job with this team!

I think he is soft. He will never , hopefully, be like KG. He doesn’t have to be. I love LMA’s game and I know his play is important to our team’s success. We don’t have a serviceable backup for the position so his mistakes or bad nights ( he is human) seem magnified. He is on his way and will be so much better. He could be a 20 and 10 player EASY in the next couple years. It is clear his rebounding has come a long way this year. His defense is better as well, especially on the block . I’m proud of him. I <3 him. He is not as cute as Batum hence he isn’t my “favorite” player but he’s up top the list for sure.

Sophia

shows the difference between a local reporter and national reporter. I don’t think Bucher went around the Blazers locker room like Quick did (see oregonlive.com site for this reference) inciting LMA about his “softness.” Quick seems immature when he does this. In fact, this is another instance where Quick has gone beyond the lines of a reporter’s role with the team.

I could care less whether LMA is soft, hard, or something else. As long as he plays within the structure of the team, all the better, and give the kid a break.

Nate says LaMarcus is a Rasheed Wallace and in time he could become a Kevin Garnett. Both of those guys are too crazy for my tastes. I think LaMarcus’s ceiling is Tim Duncan. And I think that’s why KP went out and got him.

Don’t like labeling LaMarcus as “mercurial” though. He has always seemed a nice guy, and mercurial to me means that he is fragile and volatile. The article seemed somewhat negative, as if Aldridge is immature and needs to be babied. LMA has always been part of our big three so I don’t know why Bucher had to write that his marketing presence alongside B-Roy and Oden was forced.

Happy New Years everyone.

some of the others have is because of the same reasons people are castigating GO. The difference is that LMA hasn’t been demonstrative from the beginning but people are surprised and chagrined when they see that character trait in someone they thought was and should be “on” all the time.

the whole thing about the steak dinner. Is he really that sensitive

and I was so impressed that I believed that it should be required reading for all BEdgers. the reason that i think that the article is that important is that it gives us an unequaled level of insight in to LMA’s mental/emotional patterns or “what makes LMA tick”. We also got considerable insight teusday night due to his having to deal with KG and his rising above all of that and show us that he is not really soft.

In fact LMA hates being called soft more than any other criticism. His problem apparently has been his lack of proper focus and issues related to trust. From what I have read in the last few days it appears that many of his issues are being resolved and I think it is resulting in his improved performance in recent weeks. I think that we can look forward (Power Forward in fact) to his continued improvement and possibly a better idea just how good LMA can really be.

I of course am very encouraged and I am hoping that LMA will show us that he is also worthy of being considered an All-Star. I believe that he can in fact become one of the top 5 best Power Forward in the league today. I think his growth as a player and his pursuit of his ultimate upside will continue for several years to come.

It is (will be forth) fun to watch this young man prosper.

LMA is essentially just a kid, with 2 short years of college under his belt, living far from home and his family. LMA will be fine, he just needs to get more comfortable in his own skin. His game against Boston was a great sign of his progression.
The bonds that are being established between Roy, LMA, and Oden will reap huge rewards in the future, but it will take time. When they do get it together, all three will be perennial All-Stars.

LMA won’t decide how far the Blazers go. He’s a good player, who can become a very good player. However, the Blazers need a dominant Oden to become a truly great team. If Oden becomes Howard-esque and Roy keeps getting better, the current LMA would be a pretty nice 3rd piece.

i think LMA is going to be a huge part of this offense going forward, when he is on his game he is unstoppable offensively. His high release and his varied moves on offense make him a threat to any defense and when he is on fire no one in the league can stop him. when he gets more consistent he could be our first option. If he continues to work on his low post moves and rebounding he can only get better.

that he does everything well but nothing great. He has the potential to be just as good as Garnett and maybe even a little better. We all saw how well he just played against KG but I think its his rebounding that needs to improve if he is ever going get to the All-Star game. His defense only lacks a little consistency to bring him to the elite level of a Duncan, KG, Bowen,K*be.

We all have our problems, and I don’t think they should be on newspapers/magazines.
I know LMA probably agreed with the publication, but I still think it’s not a good idea to have your “personal demons” exposed on the press.

How does Butcher know what LA was thinking about the dinner slight, and how he feels about his Dad? A lot of “implied” emotions/ accusations. I’ve heard him talk with media/friends lots of times, and seen him enjoying team mates at games and in practice. He’s usuallly a level-headed guy. I think he is a regular dude, with a slighlty reduced weight/strength for a PF in this very physical league. This is improving, as is his understanding of what it takes to be a successful against the elite teams. Mental toughness is improving.

Think about how he’s played against the Pistons, the Celtics, and the Raptors. You can see why GM’s like his potential.

I’ve heard BE’s wanting to trade him for Boozer, but the true evaluators of talent know his ceiling is way higher, and he’s very young.

I remember one fast break against the Celts where LA beat the entire Celts team down the floor with hi 6-11 quickness for an emphatic flush…not too many other big men doing this.

as a Rasheed Wallace inside/outside type big man. He has a ton of talent, the thing that separates him form Sheed, imo, is that LMA seems to have a better head on his shoulders as compared to where Rasheed was at when he was LMA’s age. I think he can hurt teams both on the block and facing up, and I’d love to see him run the pick and pop more. I don’t know if he’ll ever be a perennial all start because of the strength of the forward position in the West, but he’ll probably be 3-5 time all star at the very least.

LMA is a quiet worker who is allergic to BS. Hence, no media attention. People who write / report on sports teams are grown-up versions of the kids who used to stick crepe paper on the walls of the gym before every assembly: chatty, enthusiastic, friendly, clueless.

His hands are softening this season (a positive connotation of the word soft) he is getting more steals and blocks than last year.

It was cool to hear that the “Prunty Effect” is quite possibly one reason we’ve seen more intensity, putback dunks, out-bodying, out muscling of defenders on fast breaks after steals and such.

although they do an awful lot of talk about the “s” word, which I think rather overdoes the whole image of softness. And it already seems out of date, given Tuesday!

By the by, the jet-lag-delayed review of a seminal Celtics victory, over at LoadedO

If that is taken away he needs to go to the quick power spin and lefty finish. Unstoppable.

Great article. It’s still possible that LMA will be even more valuable than Roy.

Though it kind of makes him sound neurotic. Fragile? Bull. I suspect he’s not unusual for a guy his age — having issues with confidence and trust is all a part of being a young adult, no? In some players it comes off as cockiness; in others, thoughtless jerkiness; and in some, like LaMarcus, wariness.

Even though he’s not my favorite player (Brandon’s an amazing human being, period) LaMarcus is easily my second fave. He’s come a long way, and I bet we ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

towards how people label you. In LAs case, he’s a graceful runner. Couple that with his lean body type and the ‘soft’ label starts gaining momentum.

Pippen was always labeled soft until he started getting his finger sized for championship rings. LaMarcus will probably be the same.

I hope LMA is able to work thru his trust issues. If it’s true—as Muckraker Quick reported earlier—that for a long time LMA didn’t want his teammates to know where he lived—then that’s a bit over the top. But still: compare LMA to Zach Randolph, who was fair game for all the leeches surrounding him.

NBA stars have REASON to be distrustful, so a bit of wariness will serve LMA well.

I see him as one of the least competitive guys on the team. That’s why he’s not my favorite. But he’s still really young, maybe he’ll learn.

I’ve constantly been surprised by how down people are on LA when we have such an amazing talent in that guy. I suspect most of those people don’t have patience and want to win now more than later.

I did notice something though. New Orleans coach stated that you plan for Roy like you plan for Wade or Kobe or Lebron. In this article a coach (forgot for who) was stated as saying that Aldridge was the guy you keyed in on because you always know what Roy will give but if Aldridge goes off, you’re losing the game.

I thought that was interesting. Two different perspectives? Coaches tossing out compliments rather than truth? Red herrings as to how the coaches plan? Possibly both are true but you can’t stop Roy so you do what you can and focus on other areas to stop the blazers?

I would love to know how teams plan and coach against teams. I’d love to know how other teams do it against us and how we go about doing it against other teams. I suspect that some of that will not be shared because it would give up an advantage. Still, i’d love to know.